No general in recent times has provoked more intense and sustained controversy than Frank Kitson, a short and ramrod-straight figure with a jutting chin, nasal voice and dislike of smalltalk. Even in his nineties he was still dogged by litigation arising from his time in command of the 39th Infantry Brigade in Belfast during the Troubles. Threats to his personal security and that of his family continued to the end.
The early 1970s in Northern Ireland was a taxing time for the British Army. In the summer of 1969 the Royal Ulster Constabulary had been all but overwhelmed by what began as largely Catholic and nationalist civil rights protests, but which triggered a loyalist backlash. The IRA, whose aim was to bring about an all-island